


In the Shape of a Man

by purplehairedwonder



Category: One Piece
Genre: Chapter 938, Gen, Introspection, Wano Arc (One Piece)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:01:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27910438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplehairedwonder/pseuds/purplehairedwonder
Summary: What Shinobu doesn’t know is that few people understand holding onto the burning, desperate need for vengeance better than Law does. Few people understand what it means to be shaped as a person—molded by pain and sculpted by a thirst for revenge—by a crusade better than Law does.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 37





	In the Shape of a Man

**Author's Note:**

> Oops, I fic'd One Piece. I've been toying around with this for a while and finally just needed to put it into the world.

_"Prisoners should be disposed of! They must be silenced.”_

_“What did you say?”_

_“That is common sense for ninjas! This isn’t a game! We have been waiting twenty years for this opportunity. If we fail now, we’ll never have another chance!”_

Law stews as he stalks away from the hut they’d been hiding out in in Ebisu Town, the words of the Straw Hats telling him not to rescue his captured crewmates falling on deaf ears. He clenches his jaw; the Straw Hats refuse to leave their nakama behind, but they want Law to do so when it’s _his_ nakama in danger?

Fuck that.

But the Straw Hats didn’t try to stop him beyond a few words because they knew what they would do in his position too. For once, they’re actually sticking to the damn plan. And in their place, Law knows he would have said the same thing.

So no, he’s not angry with them.

Shinobu on the other hand…

Well, Law has plenty of anger to spare for the kunoichi and her doubt in his nakama—and by extension, him.

What Shinobu doesn’t know is that few people understand holding onto the burning, desperate need for vengeance better than Law does. Few people understand what it means to be shaped as a person—molded by pain and sculpted by a thirst for revenge—by a crusade better than Law does.

Thirteen years he’d spent with taking down Doflamingo at the forefront of his mind—less a man and more vengeance in the shape of a man. Every action Law had taken during those years was meant to bring him closer to avenging Cora-san, from the techniques he honed with his Devil Fruit to the people he chose to bring into his pirate crew. He’d plotted and planned, tracing every underworld lead and becoming Shichibukai. He’d staked his life on taking down Doflamingo, even sending his crew to Zou before turning his attention to Punk Hazard—to the first domino that would fall in the New Era—with the assumption he wouldn’t survive to see them again. It was the one kindness he could do for his nakama—protecting them from the fallout—even as he hardened his heart to take down the monster who’d haunted his nightmares for more than a decade.

Law hadn’t necessarily sought death in Dressrosa, but he’d come to terms with its likelihood. He’d made peace with his—likely long and agonizing—death as long as it was in service of destroying the Heavenly Demon. Putting him on a collision course with Kaido was the best failsafe he could think of.

(Of course, Straw Hat-ya had happened and upended everything.)

Even now, part of Law still seethed at knowing that Doflamingo lived, even if it was in chains and behind bars in Impel Down. That fiery, bitter, rage-filled part of him would never fully extinguish; Law was too much a creature of his darkness to totally lose it.

And even further under Law’s skin, beneath that constant, burning rage against Doflamingo is an even older vendetta.

Where his hatred toward Doflamingo is fire, his fury toward the World Government is ice. The need to avenge Cora-san ignited Law, drove him forward. But whenever he thinks about his parents or Lami—of Flevance—frigid fury unfurls from his chest and flows through his veins. It leaves him chilled to the marrow, haunted.

The faint white scars on his skin that never fully faded are a constant reminder of the corrupt system that destroyed Law’s country for profit. Even sixteen years later, the memories of that night—the gunshots, the fire, the blood, the bodies—are still so painful that Law pushes them as far down as he can. On the worst nights when he can’t escape the nightmares, he sees hears smells tastes feels death, and he wakes up gasping and is oh so cold.

Law was the sole survivor of the White City at ten years old, and he has _hated_ the World Government ever since.

So yes, Law understands Shinobu’s desperation, her need to avenge a man she admired and save her country. He understands it at a visceral level that itches under his skin.

He may understand, but he refuses to accept her distrust. He won’t fight alongside someone he does not—cannot—trust.

Because Law, for all his many flaws, trusts his people. And they trust him in return. It’s the driving force that makes the Heart Pirates as effective as they are. And those three especially…

He trusts his entire crew, but he’s known Bepo, Shachi, and Penguin for half his life. They had seen Law at his lowest, only days after Cora-san’s death and fresh off his attempts at curing his Amber Lead with his new Devil Fruit. They helped give Law purpose in life again when he was sure none could exist. Likewise, Law had seen them at their lowest, saving each of them in turn. Law learned to trust again with those three. Together, they had risen from Swallow Island to form the Heart Pirates.

They are Law’s, and Law is theirs.

And Law, well, he may understand Shinobu—but he’ll never be able to trust her after this.

Law heads for the prison.


End file.
